Guide to Case Analysis
Begin your analysis by
reading the case once for familiarity. An Initial reading should give
you the general flavor of the situation and make possible
preliminary identification of issues.
On the second reading,
attempt to gain full command of the facts. You may wish to make notes
about apparent organizational goals, objectives, strategies,
policies, symptoms of problems, problems, root causes of problems,
unresolved issues and roles of key individuals.
Be alert for issues or
problems which are not necessarily made explicit but which
nevertheless are lurking beneath the surface. Read between the lines
and do not hesitate to do some detective work on your own. For
instance, the apparent issue in the case might be whether a product
has ample market potential at the current selling price while the
root problem is that the method being used to compensate salespeople
fails to generate adequate incentive for achieving greater unit
volume.
Developing an ability
to evaluate companies and size up their situations is the key to case
analysis. How do you evaluate a company?.
In general,
1) The financial
position of the firm must be scrutinized closely
2) Compare and evaluate
the firm's external opportunities and internal resources.
3) Assess the future
potentials of the company.
4) Decide how urgent
the organization's difficulties are and weigh the probable impacts
upon performance and capability
5) Pin-point the key
factors which are crucial to success or failure
6) Strive for
defensible arguments and positions
7) Do not rely upon
just your own opinion, support any judgements or conclusions with
evidence.
8) Use available data
to make whatever relevant accounting, financial, marketing and
operations analysis.
